At the risk of repeating the obvious, 2026 has already been something of a rollercoaster. The wider geopolitical uncertainties and the twists and turns of global politics have been matched by equally dramatic weather: three devastating named storms in January, severe flooding, and extraordinary temperature fluctuations.
It is reassuring to know that, despite the surrounding turbulence, the commitment to acting on climate change and nature loss remains a priority for businesses around the world. The findings of the Oxford Policy Monitor, launched late last year, demonstrated a positive uptick in countries committing to net zero policies; in his recent article in Foreign Affairs, “After Paris – Environmental Policy in an Interdependent World’, Sebastian Buckup notes that ‘where climate change initiatives are perceived to present tangible opportunities for national growth, innovation and resilience, they are much more likely to succeed.’ He goes on to note that the wider ecosystem of environmental action has diversified. Cities, firms, investors, and regulators have become what he calls ‘the new centres of gravity, shaping environmental outcomes through voluntary coordination and market influence’. At the LSA, we take encouragement from this because at the centre of those spheres of influence sits a law firm, or many law firms, and the commitments and steps that our members take remain vital to global, collective action to reduce climate change and keep to the Paris 1.5-degree goal.
The LSA team is working tirelessly to bring you the best in recent research – as evidenced by the What Talent Wants event run in partnership with Chambers UK/Lamp House Strategy. Meanwhile, we are extending our library of useful resources and toolkits with the new sustainable procurement guide Putting the Sustainable in Procurement – A Practical Guide for Law Firms. By combining practical support with thought leadership, we aim to be a vital companion in your firm’s sustainable journey. As always, we want to hear from you, so please get in touch with me and the LSA team.
Best wishes,
Amanda Carpenter
LSA Secretariat
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New LSA Guide on Sustainable Procurement
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Addressing one of the most significant sources of emissions and responsible business risks for law firms – the supply chain – this guide provides a clear, practical resource for firms seeking to embed sustainability into procurement decisions and supplier management.
More than 20 LSA firms contributed to the guide’s development, through the Sustainable Procurement Working Group – a collaborative approach that brought both breadth of insight and the challenge of ensuring all voices were represented. The working group is proud of the result and hopes the guide will accelerate the sector’s progress toward a unified roadmap for net zero supply chains. Thank you to all who gave their time and expertise.
Huge thanks to our audience at the recent event launching the guide for your insightful questions and comments - and to our speakers Max Finney, Mary Lavin, and Dan Noakes.
Embedding ESG into procurement helps to manage risk, meet stakeholder expectations, reduce Scope 3 emissions, stimulate innovation, support diverse and ethical suppliers, and create measurable value for clients and communities. |
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Send in Your Questions on Carbon Management for Expert Answers |
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Unsure about where to start with your carbon footprint? Where to find the data? How to engage colleagues?
On 17 March at 2pm the LSA is hosting a Q&A session for small and medium-sized firms, packed full of practical advice from carbon experts and legal professionals who have already navigated carbon counting.
Please send questions in advance to manager@legalsustainabilityalliance.com, with the option of remaining anonymous.
This event is part of the new LSA series for small and medium-sized firms – The Carbon Foundations – Upskilling Legal Professionals on Carbon Management. |
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New Podcast: Urgent and Existential Threat – Has the ICJ Advisory Opinion Changed the Legal Landscape? |
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Six months on from the landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice, which declared climate change “an urgent and existential threat” has anything changed for lawyers, lawmakers and businesses?
Has this opinion influenced corporate legal practice or shaped decision-making for firms or their clients? What are the due diligence obligations businesses need to know about, and if the 1.5°C target is increasingly seen as unachievable, how relevant does it remain as a legal and policy benchmark?
In this episode of the Sustainable Law Podcast, Amanda Carpenter does a deep dive into the impact of the ruling with guests from both sides of the profession: Estelle Dehon KC, Cornerstone Barristers, and Shane Gleghorn, UK Managing Partner at Taylor Wessing. |
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Struggling to Engage Colleagues with Sustainability? |
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Come to our new engagement net-Working Group! This group focuses specifically on internal engagement and communication – how we inspire, inform, and involve everyone in driving sustainability across our firms. Less formal than a regular LSA working group, this will be a forum to share ideas, best practice, and inspiration, as well as an honest space to discuss challenges and learn from each other’s experiences.
Date: 24 February
Time: 2.30pm
Location: Online
Please email LSA Network Manager Asia on manager@legalsustainabilityalliance.com to register your interest.
Through open discussion and practical sharing, we aim to help member firms:
- build stronger sustainability cultures,
- empower employees to take action, and
- communicate progress in authentic, engaging ways.
Specific topics might include:
- Internal training – different approaches and opportunities
- Employee sustainability champions and networks – what works well (and what doesn’t!)
- Effective strategies for engaging and partnering with comms teams
- Ideas for internal campaigns and focus areas
- Creative ways to celebrate impact and keep momentum
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Your Help: Feedback on Business Travel |
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2025 saw the publication of the LSA guide on business travel, Every Step Counts. Now, the Business Travel Working Group is seeking feedback from LSA members to understand: - Your current position on sustainable business travel
- Whether the guide has been reviewed and how useful it has been
- Any barriers to implementation
- What support or topics you would like the working group to focus on next
Your responses will help shape the work here at the LSA, and ensure we continue to provide relevant, practical support to member firms. Thank you in advance for taking a few minutes to complete this survey. |
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LSA Executive Firms Update |
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We are delighted to be reviving the LSA tradition of in-person events for Executive Firms. The first, a lunch on Tuesday, 3 March, is kindly hosted by Ashurst.
We are welcoming Dr Emma Lecavalier, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Oxford Climate Policy Hub, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and Dr Helena Wright, Executive Director, Climate Policy Monitor, University of Oxford, who will discuss Delay, Defer, Deny – The Changing Landscape of Global Net Zero Policy, and present the findings from the Oxford Climate Policy Monitor Report 2025. The LSA Secretariat will present the 2026–27 strategy and outline plans for the upcoming year. Our contacts at Exec Firms will have received a calendar hold in their diaries, but if yours has gone astray or you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact Asia on manager@legalsustainabilityalliance.com.
If your firm is interested in becoming an Executive Member of the LSA, to help shape the direction of the network, please contact Asia via the email above. |
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Calling All Cyclists – Sign Up to Support Our Oceans |
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We are delighted to share these fundraising events run by our charity partner Blue Marine, to raise awareness and funds to support the health of our oceans. The fundraising from both rides will go toward supporting Blue Marine projects in Sussex and across the world, creating incredible impact for people and nature. |
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London to Sussex will be a beautiful one-day ride on 15 September, riding along some of the best cycling roads in the south, and visiting our Sussex Kelp Recovery Project. A bold Blue Marine jersey is designed for the ride, and photographer Tom Austin will capture the day. Climpson and Sons will join the ride and provide coffee stops along the route, and we’ll be supported by the Just Pedal team. Ride to Monaco is an epic challenge from Gap, in the south of France, to Monaco from 20–22 September, for three days of incredible riding, starting with dinner altogether on 19 September. The ride is supported by physios, coffee stops, lunch stops, mechanics, and support cars along the whole route. We finish with a champagne spray finish at the Musée Océanographique de Monaco, with a Monaco street party, and tickets to the Monaco Yacht Show. Watch the 2024 Ventoux Challenge |
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Ask the Alliance – Network Support |
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On behalf of the LSA, we would like to thank all those who have generously given their time to help colleagues since our last bulletin.
This month, we have a new query that you may be able to help with:
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Q. Health and Safety Policy – We are exploring whether to develop a more consistent global framework to sit alongside our existing UK & Ireland and local office H&S policies.
Are you aware of any LSA member law firms that have a global Health & Safety policy in place who might be prepared to share their approach and offer suggestions on key considerations, and anything else we should think about including in the new policy? |
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And please consider these queries and responses from previous bulletins, if you have anything to add please don't hesitate to get in touch: |
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Q. TCFD – An LSA member firm is looking into conducting a quantitative scenario analysis as part of their alignment with IFRS S2, even though it is not mandatory at this stage. Have any other firms been through this process? How did you find it? What are the potential cost implications? Would you recommend your consultants?
A. (From the Chair of the TCFD Working Group) The two biggest needs identified by the TCFD/TNFD Working Group were bringing in specific expertise and industry knowledge, and securing additional bandwidth/capacity (e.g., to support internal engagement). Within that, the needs vary from firm to firm. Agendi was mentioned as one consultancy that had been used. Carbon Intelligence also, although their prices had increased significantly since becoming a part of Accenture. Fees of circa £40 to £50k to support scenario analysis were felt to be reasonably common; others had seen fees greatly reduced for year 2 support to e.g. £16k.
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Q. An LSA member firm includes the cost of Practising Certificates within their education spend. This falls under Scope 3 emissions, over which they have no direct ability to reduce emissions or influence the SRA.
If associated emissions are estimated (quite crudely) based on the cost of the certificates, it results in a relatively large figure (in both emissions and financial terms) – particularly for larger firms. Are other firms encountering similar challenges?
A. Scope 3 – Practising Certificates spend – we include those emissions. It depends on the methodology you’re using as to what it is categorised as – ours is called something similar to Professional, Scientific and Technological expertise. Ultimately, what we need is carbon footprint information from the SRA, so we can move away from generic spend conversion factors. I have emailed the SRA to ask for the environmental contact, as they do state in their environmental policy that they have a carbon target and a baseline year of 2022/23, but there is no publicly available carbon footprint information yet. |
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Please share thoughts, recommendations, or other advice via manager@legalsustainabilityalliance.com and keep these questions coming in – the LSA’s strength lies in the collective knowledge of our network, and by working together and sharing best practice, we can achieve even greater impact.
The information shared in this section is provided by members on a non-advisory basis, and no responsibility or liability is accepted for reliance placed upon it.
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Please get in touch via comms@legalsustainabilityalliance.com with your stories so that we can feature them here. |
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| | Weightmans have achieved Platinum rating from EcoVadis in 2025, placing the firm in the top 1% of legal and accounting businesses globally for ESG/sustainability performance. The firm has also been named in The Lawyer's top 20 firms for lowest emissions per partner and Partner Simon Colvin was named in Legal 500's inaugural Green Ambassadors list. |
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| | Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer has launched the ESG Regulatory Atlas, an interactive online tool developed by the firm's ESG and Digital Legal Delivery practices, to help clients navigate sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements across jurisdictions. |
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| | Pinsent Masons is launching a free, comprehensive net-zero programme for its small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) suppliers to help them reduce greenhouse gas emissions through science-based targets. |
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Troubleshooting Carbon Counting – Everything You Need to Know About How to Measure, Manage, and Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
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Date: 17 March
Time: 2pm
Location: Online
Unsure about where to start with your carbon footprint? Where to find the data? How to engage colleagues? This event will be a Q&A session for small and medium-sized firms, packed full of practical advice from carbon experts and legal professionals who have already navigated carbon counting.
Please send questions in advance to manager@legalsustainabilityalliance.com, with the option of remaining anonymous.
This event is part of the new LSA series for small and medium-sized firms – The Carbon Foundations – Upskilling Legal Professionals on Carbon Management. |
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Nature and Biodiversity as a New Frontier of Risk and Opportunity for Lawyers: Launching the Nature-Intelligent Legal Services Toolkit
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Date: 24 February
Time: 1pm
Location: Online A webinar presented by the IBA Environment, Health and Safety Law Committee and the IBA Law Firm Management Committee ESG Subcommittee, supported by the IBA Water Law Committee and the Legal Policy & Research Unit.
Moderators:
Emily Morison – International Bar Association, London, England
Wangui Kaniaru – Anjarwalla & Khanna LLP, Nairobi, Kenya; Chair, Law Firm Management – ESG Subcommittee Speakers:
Thomas Mason – Nature Positive, London, England
Barrister Sahar Iqbal – Akhund Forbes, Karachi, Pakistan
Jenni Ramos – Corporate and Nature Lawyer, Cambridge, England
Julio Reyes – Aguas Nuevas, Santiago, Chile; Vice Chair, Water Law Committee
Companies, financial institutions, and governments are increasingly recognising nature-related risks and opportunities as material to business, and this has critical implications for lawyers and law firms. Against this background, the IBA Environment, Health and Safety Law Committee and IBA Law Firm Management Committee, with input from across the IBA, have produced a Nature-Intelligent Legal Services Toolkit, co-authored by corporate and nature lawyer Jenni Ramos, with sectoral nature exposure methodology devised by Nature Positive. The Toolkit and its accompanying Business Case Guide and Legal Advisory and Clause Guide, which are the first of their kind, are designed to help lawyers and law firms to understand their clients’ exposure to nature-related risks, and enhance the legal services that lawyers can provide to their clients. Join experts from around the globe for the online launch of the Toolkit, and its accompanying Business Case Guide and Legal Advisory and Clause Guide. This is a must-see event for all lawyers, law firm leadership teams, and business development teams. |
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Sustainability Dates for Your Diary |
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International Day of Forests – 21.03.26
A UN observance highlighting the importance of all types of forests for climate regulation, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. Global Recycling Day – 18.03.26
Focuses on the role of recycling in a circular economy, resource efficiency and carbon reduction. World Water Day – 22.03.26
Raises global awareness of freshwater resources, access to safe water and the sustainable management of water for people and planet. The Great British Spring Clean – 13.03.26 – 29.03.26
UK national campaign from Keep Britain Tidy encouraging litterpicks and community cleanup activity.
International Day of Zero Waste – 30.03.26
Highlights the importance of reducing waste and promoting sustainable waste management and circular economy initiatives.
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Sometimes we record our events, which you can watch via the resource library on our website.- Understanding Ecocide Law – Why businesses and law firms should engage – A webinar taking a deep dive into Ecocide Law and what it means for law firms and their clients
- LSA’s Guide to Business Travel – A webinar launching the LSA’s new guide to business travel, with members of the working group who worked on the publication
- LSA’s Guide to TCFD – A webinar launching the LSA’s new guide to TCFD, with members of the working group who worked on the publication
- Introducing the LSA Academy – A webinar launching the LSA Academy – designed to meet the growing demand for sustainability skills across our membership organisations, while leveraging apprenticeship levy funding
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Please encourage everyone in your firm to sign up for this bulletin here. |
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